Original subtitles

So, this particular lesson, we are going to

be focusing on how to shoot in the

worst light, which I'm sure none of you

have ever faced before.

This is actually on my notes, but I

was reminded of this story that I had

shot a wedding for a young couple, and

when I got to the wedding, I realized

that his mom was a really very prominent

producer in the Hollywood Hills area, and because

she had done so much work, she, instead

of hiring a videographer, hired her own team,

teams that she's been working with over the

years.

So these people are used to flying to

exotic locations around the world and shooting these

really great cinematic videos.

And so I come to find this out

when I get to the wedding, because there

was no sense in saying that they were

the videographers, at least putting it in the

timeline anywhere, nobody thought about letting me know,

and I was like, oh, okay.

And so what happened is we are shooting

a beach wedding ceremony, and it's about three

o'clock in the afternoon in Malibu, and

when we get there, I'm starting to shoot

the prep, and then as guests arrive, and

the cinematographer is standing there, and he looks

at me, and he's just like, so what

are you going to do with the light?

And I'm just like, I'm sorry, what?

He's like, but don't you see there's going

to be a hot spot on the back

of his head?

And I was like, welcome to wedding photography.

They were so used to controlling light in

such a big way that it was beyond

their comprehension that there are photographers who deal

with the worst light on a continuous basis.

Like I was just like, yeah, it's just

another bright day on the beach, it's going

to be really tough.

And he's just like, we can't shoot this.

So all I'm saying is that as wedding

photographers, we are often dealt the harshest situations,

and we have to learn how to deal

with them.

But at the same time, we have to

learn how to embrace things we cannot control,

such as a hot spot on the back

of the head, unless you want to bring

a mile-long diffuser somehow and place it

somewhere on the beach 30 feet away.

Now the idea of shooting midday bright light

really does, it's not my favorite thing.

I have said in a previous lesson that

I will be shooting midday bright light at

the Not Dream wedding, and it makes me

nauseous just thinking about that.

However, I do know that there are things

that I can employ on a wedding day

or at an engagement session that can help

leverage really bright light.

But before we get to there, I want

to list three things.

I want you guys to bear in mind

first that I would much prefer shooting at

sunset.

I absolutely would.

So I don't choose to shoot midday, but

I'm saying these are the tips that I

would employ should I be given that opportunity.

So for instance, after a church ceremony, if

the family or the mom is requesting that

the bride and groom take photos there at

the church, and I'm given a really bright

situation, I must say I know how to

stay in control of it, even though it's

not at sunset, which is what I prefer.

Secondly, I do not shoot with fill light,

artificial reflectors, fill flash, flash, off camera light

in the middle of the day.

Nothing is wrong with that.

I think if you can do it and

own it, then you rock it.

That's wonderful.

Stylistically, I identify with more of a lifestyle

photographer, which is kind of a curated version

of what I'm seeing.

And as a result, I understand that I

will be sacrificing technical aspects to the photograph.

Say like, I might blow up the sky.

I might lose portions of the dress, and

I have come to say that I stand

by those decisions sheerly by an aesthetic preference.

And it was really hard for me to

say this in the beginning of my career

because I was new and I wasn't sure

if I could justify it.

But 10 years, almost 10 years into my

business to say that, yes, I'm still blowing

up skies and there's a market for it.

I'm okay with that.

But I just want to put that out

there because I want to address these potential

questions before they actually come.

So now that you know where I stand,

and now that you know I know I

blow up my skies, we're going to move

on forward.

So the first thing, and the thing I

always say again and again, especially as we

move into the footage from this shoot, is

that I look for natural reflectors.

Now, an ideal natural reflector is light in

color like beige or white.

And the more you start training your eye

to see these in the environment in which

you are, the more they appear.

It's as if when you get a new

car and you're like, I've never seen a

green Scion, and all of a sudden there's

a green Scion everywhere.

When you start training your eye for seeing

a natural reflector, they really start appearing more.

And now, even when I don't have a

camera in my hand, I'm like, oh, this

light.

Oh, why don't I have a camera?

Who wants a photo?

I just need to shoot right here because

this is the stuff that the good stuff

is made of.

So once you find natural reflectors, we're going

to talk about the type of light that

I stay away from.

I'm going to talk about why shooting in

open shade isn't always the best idea.

And lastly, I'm going to talk about how

to create rim light even in the most

harshest of situations.

Rim light by the sun means that traditionally

the sun will be in a higher light

source directly behind the subject so that you

get like this angelic glow around their head.

But when you're shooting in bright light midday,

what results is really dark skin tones.

We're going to talk about how do we

create that rim light by putting a very

strong natural reflector in front of the subject

so that we have creating light on their

face, light around their head, and what the

pictures look like afterwards.

Now just for good measure, I will be

talking about how I shoot in dappled light.

And dappled light is when the light comes

through the trees or from other edifices around

and they put spots all over your subjects.

That's a really difficult lighting situation so I'm

going to talk about what I do in

that lighting situation as well.

Now it might sound very crazy to you

but I still continue and love to shoot

wide open in really bright situations on days

and this video is going to show exactly

that.

Now you're going to start seeing patterns in

how I shoot my subjects when it comes

to this type of light.

You're going to see me keep the sun

behind my subjects so that they're not squinting.

That is a big thing.

So will I sacrifice the sky and have

my clients squint or will I keep the

sky and have my clients squint or will

I sacrifice the sky and make them have

less crow's feet, a natural face and sacrifice

the sky and have an overall better experience

because they're not like what?

What?

Yes.

I will.

I will try to crop out the natural

reflector where it's seen.

I don't want to reveal the light source

because it's a broken light source.

It's not pretty.

It's the same way that if a photographer

was shooting me in this light, he wouldn't

want to include the fact that he's illuminating

me with his light, right?

So in the same way, I try to

the best of my ability to omit those

natural reflectors.

Now, if the natural reflector cannot be cropped

out of the frame, then I need, so

for instance, most of the time my natural

reflectors are on the floor in front of

my subjects.

If I cannot possibly crop out all of

the natural reflector of my subjects, I am

not going to position my subjects in just

a portion of the frame and just get

a little tiny bit of the natural reflector

revealed.

I'm going to position my clients in all

of the natural reflector.

So then it looks like a continuous part

of the photograph because I don't want half

of the floor in front of them illuminated

and then half of it in shade because

your eye is drawn to that brokenness.

I would rather the eye see it in

continuity with what is going on in front

of my subjects.

You will see me do that as well.

You will also see me, especially if I

know I have a bright shoot, I arrive

early and I scope out my locations because

the last thing you want to feel is

flustered in a situation where it's already tough

light.

The space might not be something that you're

familiar with and your clients are expecting you

to deliver.

So I want you to outline at least

three options for you in this area of

really bright space and then I want you

to find the natural reflectors within that space.

So what you're going to see now is

a video of how it worked for us

in Orange County.

Today we're going to be talking about shooting

in the worst light ever.

So it is about 1.30, 2 o

'clock here in Orange County, California.

This is my home turf and this is

also a time of day when brides and

grooms want to see each other.

Now, sometimes they're not afforded the luxury of

shooting in a wide field filled with trees

or buildings with open shade.

So given that situation, we have to shoot

in nothing other than bright, terrible, harsh light.

As you can probably see, it's very hard

for me to look at the camera and

I probably don't have the most complimentary shadows.

I am squinting, my eyes hurt and I'm

hot, I'm a little bit sweaty.

We're going to talk about things that we

can employ around us that actually make it

easy for us to shoot in harsh situations.

So here we go.

Cool.

So, same situation, same light, same heat, same

drastic scenario, but myself as the subject, I'm

going to be exposing differently.

And one thing I want to point out

too is that I don't, I'm not squinting

as much.

I'm not as hot.

I'm not fighting the sun.

The sun is actually going to be used

as a source of illumination.

I'm going to show you how I do

this with a bride and groom, but just

to up the ante a little tiny bit,

I decided to shoot a racially mixed couple.

So the bride is black and she's wearing

a white dress and the groom is Caucasian

wearing a black suit.

So I'm going to show you a few

things that simply by finding natural reflectors, it'll

bounce beautiful light back onto the subjects.

We're going to learn a lot as we

go along the way.

So stay cool, sip some iced tea as

we sweat our faces off out here, just

for a really valuable lesson.

So we're going to start the shoot in

what I would refer to as the not

the prettiest location.

And what I want to do every time

I'm working with a new couple is to

find a way to make them feel comfortable.

And that's usually by me not talking too

much.

It's kind of just understanding the way that

their bodies are going to be formed without

too much instruction.

So in light of that, I'm going to

save the best location or what I would

think would be the best location for the

end.

We arrived to the shoot.

I was able to scout the park that

I'm shooting in right now, and I'm going

to save the best location for the end.

And I'm going to start in a location

simply that kind of just sets the tone

of the shoot.

I'm going to start this session just for

this particular case in the harshest light without

any diffused light, without any trees in the

background.

And what I want to point out first

and foremost is the thing that I'm always

looking forward, looking for in a shoot is

a natural reflector.

The ground standing in front of me is

a terracotta color, and it's going to be

putting this nice beautiful light back into their

faces to balance for it.

I'm going to purposely pull them into terrible

light.

So this is Micah.

This is Tiffany.

They've been married.

They're a real life couple, and they're just

going to bring it.

So Micah, come out right about here.

Good.

You're going to turn in towards Tiffany.

Tiffany, you're going to turn in towards Micah.

You're going to bring your torsos together, your

belly to belly.

Nice.

Micah, hands around her waist.

Now, Tiffany, can I have you hold your

bouquet, I'm sorry, with your right hand over

Micah's shoulder?

Nice.

And what I want to do is I

just want to caution this is kind of

big, so I want to make sure that

it doesn't compete with Micah's head.

Great.

Beautiful wedding ring.

I love it.

Okay, cool.

So I'm going to make slight adjustments to

the dress.

And I'm going to notice that a portion

of the dress is in shade, and so

I'm going to see if I should adjust

it accordingly to have them step out so

that the light is continuous throughout the whole

thing, or whether or not it's that big

of a deal.

But I'm going, for this particular shot, I'm

going to fight for it.

So Micah, take two steps back.

Tiffany, you're going to take two steps in.

Nice.

Great.

Perfect.

And so I noticed that on the bottom

of Tiffany's dress, there is a small little

handle to carry it, so I want to

make sure that that's tucked away so that

that will save me time later in Photoshop

from removing it.

Beautiful.

Now, I'm going to specifically angle their bodies

in such a way that I'm going to

try to avoid hotspots.

The hotspots are going to be there, and

I'm just going to have to give up

for it, but if I can minimize what

that looks like.

So bring your bodies here, turn slightly towards

me.

So what I just did was I come

out this way.

This is where it was.

Peel away.

Just relax.

So come out.

So this is what the original light was

like.

By bringing their bodies in nice and close

together, and then turning towards me, I've cut

out hotspots across her chest, and the hotspot

now is on her back shoulder, which is

not going to be in competition to the

frame.

So peel your heads away.

Beautiful.

I'm going to adjust this hair right here.

And then anytime you feel a little hot,

just let me know.

Like, hey, I need a break.

We have water for you too.

Okay.

And that would actually happen on a wedding

day.

J.D., or my second shooter, will always

have water ready for the bride and groom

in case they need it, because we want

to keep them as comfortable as possible.

The more time we get with them, the

happier we will be.

One thing that I'm paying particular attention to

is that Tiffany is about 5'8", so

she's tall.

With heels, she and Micah are both the

same height, which is great.

It's going to afford me the latitude of

shooting wide open, because their eyes are on

the same focal plane.

A quick review of focal planes was there's

an X-axis and there's a Y-axis.

Whatever I focus on, that focal point, whatever

runs an exact line to that point should

theoretically be in focus.

So if Tiffany, and the same goes for

the Y-axis, if Tiffany was standing on

Micah's shoulders and I focused on Micah's eye,

theoretically, she should be in focus right on

top of him.

So these are the things that I'm thinking

about.

Roughly, their eyes are at the same level,

and I'm not going to have them look

at me.

So I'm going to shoot at a 2

.5 because I can.

My ISO will be 125, and my shutter

speed, I'm going to start at 2,500th

of a second.

Ooh, it's hot.

Okay.

Get a little test shot going on.

Beautiful.

So my main focus is not blowing out

the bride's dress and keeping their skin looking

nice and good.

I'm at F2.5. I'm at 1,600th

of a second, 125 ISO.

Now some people ask why I don't shoot

with a lens hood, and I think that

they're just a little bit cumbersome.

I would just prefer to use my hand.

That's great, you guys.

I love it.

I'm going to adjust.

I'm going to go to 1.

I'm going to go to 1,250th of

a second.

Good.

Beautiful.

Now what I'm going to do is my

focal point is always on the bride in

these types of situations.

Gorgeous.

Relax that left shoulder tip.

Nice.

I just abbreviated her name.

We've known each other all of five minutes,

and good, good, good.

Beautiful.

Look over your left shoulder.

Beautiful.

And Micah, can you lean in?

Relax the eyebrows.

Micah, you lean in and kiss her wherever

your lips land.

Hang out there.

Now what I'm going to do, because I

can, I'm going to shoot wide open.

I'm just going to shoot with the 50

1.2. I'm going to shoot wide open

in the worst light because I can, and

I want to show you what I'm going

to do.

What's happening is that if we have Tiffany's

face is looking down, this beautiful light is

illuminating her, and then we have light around

her head, which is going to look extraordinarily

angelic because of the caramel color of her

skin.

We're going to talk a little bit how

we're going to do that.

So what I want you to do is

I'm going to start my subjects always away

from each other, and then I'm going to

move them into the pose so that I

can solicit a nice, natural pose and feel.

So if you guys can step away, not

step away, just bring, yes, that was beautiful.

Take a deep breath.

Relax your shoulders.

I'm going to get my settings right to

where I want them.

So right now I'm not going to be

coaching them too much.

Okay, great.

I'm at F 1.2, 25 hundredths of

a second, ISO 125.

I will likely stay at ISO 125 for

as long as I'm shooting in these really

harsh lighting situations.

Beautiful.

So that's, yes, guys, you guys can roll

right in.

Tiffany, you already want to get there, so

we can go there, boo.

We can go there.

Good.

Beautiful.

Good.

So I shot a mix.

I'm going to make sure that I get

horizontal and vertical.

I'm going to use the rule of thirds

at this particular place.

Bring your torsos in nice and close.

Ah, there we go.

Beautiful.

Now what just happened is I'm asking them

to bring their torsos in nice and close,

because what that's going to do is going

to bring their bodies in, make it curve

to each other, and give an overall more

complimentary vibe to what's going on.

And they're just natural lovebirds, which is amazing

for me.

So I'm just going to be focusing on

beautiful lighting.

Beautiful.

Now, I actually like Micah's profile a ton.

Tiffany, can you look here at me?

Beautiful.

Relax that front shoulder.

I'm going to step it.

I'm going to shoot this at a 1

.2. Because Micah's looking at Tiffany, I don't

have to worry so much about him being

intact.

Sharp focus.

Oh, Tiffany, darling.

I mean, really?

Gosh, this is fantastic.

Good.

Beautiful.

Good.

So in about five minutes, I have three

different situations, poses in the worst possible light.

My clients still look and feel a little

comfortable.

Luckily, a slight breeze came in.

I'm sweating bullets because the sun is directly

on me, and I'm okay with that.

But my clients, the sun is behind them.

They're just warm.

They're having a great time.

That's going to be the main point.

So what I want to do now is

I want to work from a really harsh

lighting situation to still being in harsh lighting

with dappled light.

This same principle applies.

I'm going to have the sun always behind

my subjects.

I'm going to be okay sacrificing the blue

in the sky to get the kind of

light and feel that I want overall.

So we decided to take a quick break.

Celeste, our producer on site, asked me if

I would like to have some tape to

pin the handle of the dress, which is

otherwise known as like a bustle, to tape

it underneath the dress because it kept on

popping out in photos.

On a wedding day, I don't have a

producer, but there might be a maid of

honor, a mother of the bride, mother of

the groom, or even a coordinator.

In those situations, I always feel comfortable saying,

hey, do I need to have a bobby

pin?

Do you have any beauty tape?

Anything of that nature is what I will

ask for.

Another thing that I keep in my bag

are bobby pins, safety pins, um, shout wipes,

you never know when somebody's going to get

a stain and bottles of water.

Those are kind of essentials that always help

in a situation.

And now what I'm going to do is

I'm going to walk into a description of

why I don't use a lens hood and

why I don't use a lens hood is

quite honestly, sheer laziness and cumbersome.

I don't want to have a lens hood

because I shoot with a side bag on

a wedding day.

I'm constantly changing out my lenses.

I use one body and swap out lenses

throughout the day.

Using lens hoods on each of my lenses

becomes a little bit more difficult for me

to switch as quick as I do.

So what I'm going to do in light

of a lens hood and really theoretically, a

photographer uses a lens hood for just a

short amount of time during the day.

What I do is I create the feeling

of a lens hood by holding the camera

up and then I'm noticing that there's going

to be sun flare or a little haze.

I'll simply put my hand in front of

the lens and block just the main core.

What I would otherwise refer to as the

nucleus of the sun.

I block the nucleus of the sun so

that I'm still getting that beautiful backlight without

it compromising focus issues or without completely overwhelming

or overexposing the photo itself.

So I'm going to shoot again in a

really awful lighting situation.

I'm going to see if I could produce

something I really like given no shade whatsoever.

We're going to move into that right now.

What I'm seeing here is a distinct hot

spot right between the couple, which is natural.

In any other given situation, I would be

okay with that, but I'm going to see

if by switching their positions, I can actually

minimize what that looks like.

So Micah, can you turn your shoulders towards

me all the way, all the way, your

feet, shoulders, everything towards me.

Beautiful.

A little bit more square them towards me.

And then I want you to flip your

hand, uh, that hand in your pocket.

Nice.

And can you undo the lower button?

So I'm a fan of having a gentleman's

jacket closed, but I like just one button

so it still gives them freedom of movement.

Now that Micah is set up, I've minimized

this hot spot, which is great, which is

what I, which is what I want from

the original pose.

Now I'm going to turn Tiffany in towards

Micah.

She's going to bring her body in and

you're going to kind of lean in, lean

in.

Great.

You're going to turn this way.

I'm going to see how that looks.

Now, Tiffany went to, did something totally natural,

but what I want to do is always

avoid the floating hand.

Tiffany, bring your hand back up here.

Don't cheat.

Tiffany had her hand ever Micah's shoulder, which

is great, but in a photo it looks

like a dangling hand.

I'm going to change the hand from the

shoulder around his waist because from my angle

and vantage point, it's not going to be

seen.

And if it is, I will have her

change it.

Great.

So now I did what I wanted to

do.

I put a hotspot on Tiffany's, uh, back

left shoulder, but I'm okay with that.

I'm totally and completely okay with that.

I'm going to do a small little adjustment.

I don't adjust a wedding dress too much

on a wedding day.

I actually like that natural kind of, um,

that natural kind of just movement of a

dress.

Beautiful.

You guys look amazing.

I'm going to hopefully use the lines to

the left and right of the couple to,

um, to kind of act as a leading

line, leading them way up to them.

And in the background, you'll see that there's

a bridge.

That bridge is the most beautiful light and

I'm going to save that until the end.

But right now I'm going to shoot this

at a 2.5 and traditionally people are

thinking this is absolutely crazy and I don't

really mind.

It's kind of just what I do now.

What I'm getting right now over the couple

is a slight haze, but the minute I

put my hand over to kind of block

where that light is going to come from,

I really get a, I really get a

look that I'm going for, which is a

nice, clean, crisp look and all it is

is just a matter of finding exactly what

I want.

Beautiful.

So can you just relax that right shoulder

at a girl?

Can you just, um, bring your face a

little bit more towards me?

There we go.

And then lean it in.

There you go.

How about this?

How about you bring your legs apart a

tiny bit and then redistribute the weight heavily

into one hip or the other.

That's it.

Thank you.

Good.

And the reason why I'm adjusting Tiffany in

such a way is because she looked like

she was too much in competition visually with

Micah.

I want to give Micah the stronger pose

and then having him directly be looking at

me.

So Micah, you're going to be looking at

me.

Tiffany, can you look at Micah?

Can you relax your bouquet a tiny bit?

Beautiful.

Good.

Now Micah, can you do me a favor?

Can you look at the cinematographer right behind

me?

That's great.

Perfect.

And so I just use Steven, our cinematographer,

as a point of focus because I don't,

I sometimes like falling into the second shooter

position.

We can relax for a second.

I'm shooting at, I'm shooting at a 2

.5, 2000th of a second, 125 ISO.

I'm going to use the rule of thirds

now.

And I might not have to use a

lens head in this light because when I

was standing up and vertical, I got the

sun in a way that compromised the photo.

By us coming down a tiny bit and

changing horizontal, I'm no longer fighting that battle.

So I don't need to put my hand

up the way that it was.

This is beautiful.

Good.

I'm going to do one more pose.

Tiffany, you just look so gorgeous.

Turn out towards this way.

Beautiful.

All the way.

Nice.

Hold, um, hold Micah's hand.

Good.

Now, what I want you to do as

I feel like your weight is in both

legs, give it to me again the way

in there like a hip, but strong.

There we go.

Okay.

One thing I want to point out real

quick is, um, I have this idea or

the way that I refer to it, I

might refer to it in different shoots because

this applies to a girl of any figure

of any size.

I like to what I'd like to find

what I call the Thunderbolt.

The Thunderbolt is strong shoulders and then dropping

a hip from one side to the other.

And all that really is doing is really

coming in, curving out the bride's waist, falling

it in.

Now, some brides will fall, uh, they fall

into a hip and then they bring their

hips forward.

Never a good look.

If they fall into a hip, I always

say hip to the side, booty back, core

in.

And I, I'll, I'll be saying this to

Tiffany again and again cause I say it

to all my brides because every bride wants

to have that nice kind of curvy silhouette

and that's the thing that I really focus

on.

So these are the adjustments that I'm going

to be walking you through.

I'm shooting in really awful light and I

have very few hotspots and I'm going to

compromise the hotspots and I'm going to be

saying, I'm going to say that's okay with

me.

I'm actually still exposing and because of this

nice natural reflector in front of us, um,

I'm still getting a bit of the blue

of the sky and that's great.

This is a perfect scenario for me.

Beautiful.

Eyes at each other.

Good.

Eyes back here.

Good.

Now what I want you guys to do

is simply walk towards me, squaring off your

shoulders towards me.

Beautiful.

Now what I want you to do is

not pay attention to me.

I simply want you walking towards me starting

with your left foot first with a cadence

of one, two, three.

That is it.

I will talk to you and then I

might call for Tiffany and when I call

for Tiffany, Micah, you look at Tiffany.

And when I call for Micah, Tiffany, you

look at Micah.

My brain's not working today.

I'm gonna stand a little bit closer and

as I stand closer, I might have to,

no, I'm gonna keep my exposure the same.

I'm at a 2.5. I'm 2,000th

of a second.

I'm at 125 ISO.

Micah, can I have your hand in your

pocket?

I'm going to call for Tiffany first so

my focal point is on her and then

I will switch it to Micah.

And three, two, one.

Eyes at each other and I'm pacing back

with him at the same cadence so that

I can focus in between each shot.

Tiffany, eyes here.

Fantastic.

Take one big step towards me, away from

Micah.

One big step.

Eyes back at Micah.

Eyes back at Micah.

Good.

One big step towards me.

One more.

One more.

I love this.

Great.

Thank you.

Perfect.

So we've just transitioned from shooting in full

light with no shade and we've leveraged that

light by using natural reflectors.

I will try to use natural reflectors in

every given situation that I am shooting in

with natural light.

So the type of light that I'm standing

in now is backlight with the sun behind

me.

But if I were to turn my face,

what it then becomes is dappled light or

otherwise known as leopard light.

For a while, because I'm not like technically

very savvy when it comes to photography, I

would call it leopard light because the light

would come on the skin and make them

look like a leopard.

It wasn't until a photographer was talking about

dappled light, then I was like, oh yes,

dappled light.

So we're in dappled light.

What I want to do is I want

my subject's heads and bodies to be the

sun to be on the back of their

heads and bodies.

And what I'm going to do is I

have broken light in front of me, but

the ground that they're standing on is dirt,

but kind of like a, again, a reddish

kind of dirt.

And what this dirt is going to do

is going to reflect the sun that's shining

on it back into their faces.

We have a nice breeze.

This is the kind of ideal light that

ultimately I would want my subjects to be

in because they're not boiling in that really

hot heat.

I'm simply going to have my subjects walk

towards me, kind of create a nice environment,

relaxed and having a good time.

Because if they look back at their photos

and they realize they were having a good

time when this moment actually occurred, they're not

really going to remember the hot and the

photo requests that I made of them on

their wedding day.

So we're going to get started with that.

Tiffany, come towards me.

I'm going to shoot the bouquet and I'm

going to put Micah in the frame.

Pause right here.

Now, what I'm going to do specifically right

now is I'm shooting in really bad light,

but I want to make sure that the

florist gets photos for what she needs.

So I'm working with this really beautiful bouquet.

I'm going to try to frame it for

the bouquet and the boutonniere to be in

the same frame, but Tiffany will be closer

to me.

I'm going to drop this to a 2

.0. Because I'm in this dappled light, I'm

going to change my ISO to 160.

You could be anywhere from 100 to 200,

depending on your preference.

And Micah, I actually liked how you were

looking off in that kind of direction.

Nice.

Great.

I'm at F2.0. I'm at 1250th of

a second and I'm at 160 ISO.

So Tiffany's bouquet is in the foreground in

the further left third of the frame and

Micah is standing looking off, but I'm also

getting a bit of his boutonniere.

So now that I have that in the

frame, I'm going to shoot.

Micah, can I have you step this way?

I'm going to have you out of the

frame.

I'm going to shoot just the bouquet now.

So Tiffany, stand centered to this dirt.

Beautiful.

Now, what I want to make sure that

I'm doing is I'm going to want to

make sure that I'm avoiding hot spots on

the bouquet as much as possible.

And a simple fix, which Tiffany already addressed,

was actually putting her hands down a little

bit more.

That small change is actually going to yield

a stronger photo.

So I have Tiffany's bracelet in the frame.

I have a bit of her dress in

the frame.

And I have the bouquet.

A bride would probably want these details, and

this is kind of like a cure rated

way of actually bringing them to life.

And the best part is it's bringing them

to life in otherwise not so great lighting.

I do have a tendency to shoot wide

open because I want to blur out what's

going on in the background.

I don't want in this particular situation, we

have trees, we have lampposts, we have a

doggy bag pickup station, we have a chair.

I want to blur all of those things

out so that it's not in competition.

I'm going to have you just relax a

little bit.

I have it, I want the tip out,

just like that, yeah.

So I'm going to shoot it horizontal, then

I'm going to shoot it vertical, and I'm

going to make sure that I'm getting the

lip of the dress along with the bouquet.

And I'm going to shoot just the bouquet

without the lip of the dress.

Oh, wow, that hurt my thighs.

Okay, I'm going to back up a tiny

bit, get it into a slightly different frame.

Great.

Oh, that's really pretty.

Good.

Stay there.

Look that way.

Look that way.

Now, a quick change.

I had Tiffany looking in this direction, and

I realized that the bangs were crisscrossing her

face in a way that became a distraction.

By simply changing the direction she looked, I

got her full frame, and then the bangs

became an accentuation of her face.

Tiff, can you bring your shoulders slightly this

way?

Atta girl.

A small shift of the shoulders actually minimized

hot spots on her shoulder.

Good.

So we're just going to take a deep...

I feel like I'm out of breath.

Man, that squat just put me out of

it.

Good Lord.

Good.

Good.

Beautiful.

Good.

My settings are at F2.0. I'm at

1,600th of a second.

I am at 160 ISO.

Good.

Atta girl.

Looking down at your bouquet?

Beautiful.

Now, what I would love for you to

do is, Micah, come into the frame, and

I want your chest to be perpendicular to

her arm.

So you're going to be standing this way.

I'm going to lift her dress up.

You're going to get your shoes nice underneath.

Beautiful.

Have your hand here, and then have your

hand around her waist.

Actually, can you open up this arm around

his waist?

There we go.

There we go.

So what I want to do when it

comes to body formation, specifically when I'm working

with very limited reflected light, if I was

in a perfect open shade area, I would

have more latitude.

But in this particular case, I want to

find ways to bring my subject's bodies closer

to minimize the hot spots that's kind of

forming.

Tiffany was holding her bouquet like this, and

Micah came and stood perpendicular to her.

And then what happened in that situation is

that it looked a little awkward.

By her opening her arm, letting Micah in,

their bodies became tighter, and the amount of

hot spots within their bodies minimized.

That's always going to be a goal of

mine.

So I am still going to keep my

same settings that I was shooting the beautiful

bride, because nothing in this situation has changed,

because I'm not going to shoot a portrait

of them where I need both of their

faces in crystal clear focal focus.

Now turn towards each other.

Beautiful.

And I'm going to be using my hand

as a lens hood, unless I can position

my body in relation to a tree.

If I can position my body where a

branch is actually blocking what I otherwise refer

to as the nucleus of the sun, then

I don't have to hold up my hand.

Sometimes if I don't want to hold up

my hand, I'll just kind of reposition my

body so that I find a branch, a

tree, a leaf that I like.

But right now I'd rather just kind of

go.

So in this particular situation, versus the really

bright situation, is I am going to expose

further skin in this shaded area.

And anything beyond that shaded area will likely

be blown out, because it's slightly darker where

we are, versus being 100% in full

sun.

Eyes at each other.

Good.

Beautiful.

Now, Micah, can you come towards me?

Take Tiffany's hand.

I'm going to switch my position so that

the natural reflector remains in front of my

subjects.

Now instead of shooting them head on, I'm

going to shoot off to the side a

tiny bit.

I'm going to rotate who's going to be

in front of the other person.

I'm first going to have Micah in front,

and the focal point will be on Micah.

I'm going to pause.

Then I'm going to bring Tiffany in front.

And what I mean in front is if

they're walking side to side, one person is

going to be one step ahead of the

other.

That changes the focal plane.

They are no longer on the same x

-axis.

I'm going to be okay with one person

being out of focus, because they're not going

to be looking at the camera simultaneously.

I'm going to shoot up the side.

I'm going to make sure that Micah is

my focal point.

I will be shooting at an F2.0,

because I just like the way that looks.

I can get a lot of bokeh.

I'm going to test the light.

And this is exactly where I'm fine.

One thing to note, again, is that we

have broken natural reflectors.

Now, this is broken light.

We have some shade, some sun.

If in this situation my subjects were walking

to an area that changed from broken light

to strictly bright light, I would have to

compensate quickly.

And I compensate quickly by way of my

shutter speed.

My aperture and my ISO do not have

to change, but I need to compensate for

the elevated level of light.

The more brightness there is, because I can

speak English.

Okay, Micah, take one step out towards me.

Fantastic.

On the count of three, we're going to

be doing that same pacing.

That one, two, three.

And I might be asking you to do

different things at different times.

But yeah, so I'm going to keep you

on your toes.

I'm going to keep you on your toes.

We're going to start with your left foot.

First, you're going to have your hand in

your pocket.

That was great.

I actually liked it.

Your hand in your pocket.

Is your thumb in it?

Yeah.

Yeah, great.

Thumb.

Perfect.

Thumb or forefingers, I don't have.

I totally don't have a preference.

So we're going to start it off on

the count of three, two, and one.

Nice.

Good.

Look out towards the street, towards Jeffrey.

Nice.

Looking back at your gorgeous wife.

Now, I want you to take a big

step towards me, Micah.

Micah, Micah, Micah.

Pull her, pull her, pull her, pull her.

Nice.

Good.

Good.

One more time.

Pull her again.

Heck yes.

Okay, so this is what happened.

In this particular situation, I had the vocal

point on Micah.

And what I didn't anticipate was him pulling

her to such a degree that he ended

up slightly out of frame, but then she

became the focal point.

So I can still see a bit of

Micah's profile as you look back at her,

and she's smiling, looking at him.

And in that moment, the idea that I

had in my mind actually got better because

we got a picture of a bride really

not expecting to be photographed, and then she

did.

She just enjoyed the moment looking at her

husband.

I'm going to back them up and have

them do it one more time, but this

time Tiffany's going to be in front of

the frame, and then I'm going to see

what happens naturally as a result.

Side note, I don't have my clients do

anything more than twice because I feel like

it ruins the moment and the legitimacy.

I need to be able to tell myself

as a photographer, I need to nail the

shots that I want in two opportunities.

Maybe that's a little bit hard-nosed, but

I feel like I really want my clients

to know that I value their time and

that I think that they're doing a great

job.

If I had them do something four or

five times, they wouldn't think that I'm not

doing my job.

They would probably think that they're not doing

their job.

So we're going to back it up and

try this one more time.

I'll pick up your dress, and we'll pause

you here.

Perfect.

Okay.

One thing I also want to note is

if I have my clients do the same

thing twice, I always want to make sure

that they're standing in the same position in

relation to each other.

If, for instance, I had them walk back

and then Tiffany ended up on the opposite

side of Micah, I wouldn't be able to

superimpose or realign the pictures in a way

that looks natural.

So, for instance, if I wanted to take

photos and put them in a slideshow, and

one picture would be on Micah, and then

they'd be walking towards me, and then the

focus would be on Tiffany, and then I

had them do it again, but Tiffany was

on the opposite side, if I don't show

that transition on the slideshow, it will betray

the fact that I had the couple do

it more than twice, and it doesn't look

real.

My goal for photography is to simply look

like I'm following a bride and groom, frolicking

on their wedding day, and know I'm not

stopping or changing anything, when in reality, we

definitely know that's the case.

We're going to have to do it one

more time, again, if we're following along, Tiffany

will now be the focal point of this

frame, and she's going to be stepping in

front of Micah.

One big step in front of your handsome

husband.

Beautiful.

Now, Micah, what I want you to do,

oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, okay, good, beautiful.

Look down at the bouquet.

Relax the bouquet, Tiff.

Beautiful.

Now, pull on Micah.

Micah, make it hard for her to pull

you.

Looking down at the bouquet, Tiff.

Look down at the bouquet.

Good.

Now, Micah, you can work with her now.

I'm making you work.

Look back at him.

Good.

Good.

Good.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now, a quick thing to note, I'm going

to actually move with my client just maybe

10 feet from where I am.

I'm going to talk about the light and

why I don't use it.

Now, we have beautiful dappled light.

They're backlit.

The sun is behind them.

We have light in front of them.

What I see a lot of photographers doing

is going to an open shade area.

Open shade is not a bad thing, but

if you do not have a natural reflector

compensating for this light source, the photos will

be muddled and they will be green.

I'm going to show you why I don't

do that in one second.

We're going to walk over here right now.

So I've moved my subjects into an area

of light that I see a lot of

photographers use on a wedding day, and it's

completely natural to think that this light is

good light.

And in a way, it is, and then

in an entirely other way, it's totally not.

I see photographers shooting in this type of

light, and sometimes they'll use fill flash because

this light has a tendency to be muddled,

but what I think I want to point

out is anytime you're using a natural reflector,

you want a light color that will bounce

back in a way that compensates.

In this particular situation, what we're shooting in

is between two large trees.

The trees have become extraordinarily shaded, and I

have this huge patch of shaded light.

It seems safe, except for the fact that

if I were to bring my subjects closer

to a light source, which in this case

would be the grass in front of them,

what's going to come back onto their faces

is green.

I'm going to shoot it, and I'm going

to show you exactly what I mean.

Can you guys step out over here?

Now I could have them stay here in

the center between the two trees, but this

light is like way too dark.

It does nothing for their skin tones.

Specifically speaking, because we have a caramel and

we have vanilla and chocolate kind of combination

going on right now, I want to get

light that makes people look amazing.

Color balancing for caramel colored skin and Caucasian

skin in green light is just not that

easy.

It's not that great, and it doesn't really

look good on any shade of skin.

In that particular case, what I'm going to

have you guys do, I'm going to have

them step out towards my light source.

We'll pause here.

Now their skin tones become more illuminated, so

that does look better, but it's not all

that great.

I'm going to show you the colors that

kind of come in, and there's going to

be two big flaws in this particular lighting

situation.

Simple, these photos will not make your edit.

Please don't ask me for them.

Turn in towards each other.

We're just going to keep this really simple

and basic.

Let's just take this.

Now I'm going to shoot this at 2

.0. Because I'm in this amount of shade,

I'm going to shoot it in ISO 200.

I'm going to simply ...

Great.

So I'm going to shoot this.

Right now, I am at a 2.2,

800th of a second, ISO 200.

Now the biggest flaw that I think, outside

of the green color cast that's existing in

this photo, is that there's too many light

distractions.

Behind my subjects is an illuminated path and

an illuminated field behind them.

That's going to deter the eye from understanding

truly what it should be looking at.

Light should be an enhancement, not a distraction.

I'm going to shoot this, and then later

on in post, I'm going to talk a

little bit, later on in why I'm shooting

this, I'm going to talk about why I

stay away from this type of light.

Can you guys just bring your foreheads nice

and close to touch?

Beautiful.

Gorgeous.

Good.

Beautiful.

One thing, too, is I want to make

sure that the horizon line behind me is

as even as possible, so that I don't

have to worry about that so much in

post.

I'm going to step in.

Good.

Tiff eyes here.

Chin.

Attagirl.

Good.

And then, Micah, can you lightly kiss wherever

your lips land?

Good.

Great.

Okay, so I have a few photos that

the editors are going to be taking.

Now, because we're pre-recording this shoot, they're

going to get my raw images untouched, and

they're going to be interspersing them in the

footage that you see.

These photos are not going to be all

that great, because they're going to be blue

and green in tonality, and this massive light

source behind them is going to be a

source of so much distraction.

This is what the lesson from this particular

lighting situation would be.

If at all possible, avoid natural reflectors that

cast blue, green tones, purple, magenta, anything that's

going to be a distraction.

You also want to use light as an

illuminator and not a distractor, and two, anytime

you're shooting people with mixed colored skin, or

even people of the same color skin, but

different color clothing, you want light that's going

to be complementary to the overall photo and

not really detract from the quality of it

that it is.

These photos would not make the edit for

me on a standard wedding day.

Hypothetically, if the bride and groom were here

and they said, we want to shoot in

this area, I would do it to be

polite, and then I would casually walk away

and say, you know what guys, in case

these photos don't come out, I'm going to

take you to another area that I know

for sure they will.

I always like to add a safeguard, so

on that same note, we're going to walk

towards an area that I think will actually

be great light, give us a lot of

latitude, and we're going to show how we

can kind of manipulate the light that we're

given, give an open shade.

So here we go.

So we have just transitioned from an area

of not the best light, and in this

particular light, the natural reflector that I will

be working with isn't terracotta, but it is

still lighter in nature.

I will absolutely take a light natural reflector

than any other color natural reflector, even if

it's not necessarily something that will compensate the

light that I'm given.

I'm standing in front of a bridge, and

I understand that I'm in a very public

place.

People will be walking behind me.

There might be bikes ridden behind me, and

I'm just going to be okay with it,

but I will preface it by telling my

clients to expect right on time, we have

some bike and walkers.

So we're just going to let them pass

right on through us, and we're just going

to continue talking.

So one thing I'm going to be focusing

on is the fact that I'm working in

complete open shade, and it should be really

good.

The color cast isn't as ideal as I

would like, but this is a slight fix

that I can fix in post, and as

long as I have a good solid natural

reflector, that is going to be great.

I'm going to be focusing on shooting them

in nice, beautiful, fresh light, and then I'm

going to be, hopefully, manipulating the light so

that I can have them lit beautifully, like

a little halo in the beginning, and then

one thing that I learned about Tiffany, as

we've just been talking throughout the day, is

that she used to work as a Disney

princess.

She would walk around Disneyland, and she told

me this really cool story that she auditioned,

and she went in, and she didn't know

that she was auditioning for a princess, except

for the fact that she just decided to

let go, have fun, and she danced.

So I told her, Tiffany, I'm going to

have to see your dance moves.

So we're going to have a little bit

of fun with dance moves, we're going to

have really good fun with light, and then

we're just going to keep on going through,

as people just ride on past us.

So here we go.

The closer I have my subjects stand to

the light source, the more illuminated they will

become, but because they're going to be that

much more illuminated, their background's going to get

darker.

I'm going to kind of split the difference,

because I want them to be illuminated, but

I don't want the background to be so

dark that it looks like they're sitting in

front of a really, really, really dark structure.

So what I'm going to do first is

just have you guys come in.

Can you interlock your arm, Tiff, your left

arm around?

Yes.

And then can I have your hand in

your pocket, Micah?

Beautiful.

Good.

And Tiffany, I think you had your hand

here.

Can you just do me a favor, a

slight modification, can you turn your thumb in

and your hand out?

Good.

Now the reason why I do that, that

slight hand change, is that the less fingers

that are actually on her hip, the less

distraction that there is.

Now I kind of stay away from poses

like this.

I used to do this a lot in

the beginning of my career, but one thing

that I noticed is most women don't stand

like this a lot of the time.

I'm going to do this as just this

one shot, to kind of showcase the difference

between a hand in the front and a

hand in the back.

I'm going to bring this, I'm going to

be shooting at a 2.8, be shooting

at 200 ISO, because my subjects are in

full shade.

I will be using my hand as a

lens hood.

I'm going to get a little test shot

right now, and, cool.

I'm going to shoot this at 400th of

a second.

Yep, this light is good.

Now that I have my light and my

setup, I have people walking in the background,

and I'm just going to turn to my

clients, and I'm going to ask for them

just to turn it on for me real

quick.

Michael, hold the bouquet, take one step out.

Now I want you to pick up your

dress a tiny bit.

I want you to wiggle your hips, wiggle

your hips, wiggle your hips, but in, yes.

So I kind of want you to do

a figure eight, swish the hips, swish, I

know.

I mean, that is like, yes, see, you

have a cute figure eight, I do not

have a cute figure eight.

Nice, lift up one hand with the dress,

nice.

Now I want you to twirl all the

way around, twirl all the way around, all

the way around.

Look at Michael, all the way around, all

the way around.

One more time, one more time, one more

time.

Good, good, good.

Pause.

So what just happened there is, I wanted

just to create movement.

I wanted her to have fun.

I wanted to be able to look and

feel comfortable.

I gave Michael the bouquet because I always

think for some reason it looks cute when

a groom will hold the bouquet while the

bride is having a good time.

I also had to shoot that really quick

because there were a group of kids approaching

from the background and I did not want

to spend a lot of time cropping them

out later in post.

So I am going to let the kids

pass them now, but I am going to

be setting up the next pose because I

want to be using my time as efficiently

as possible.

I may or may not have Tiffany do

a little bit more dancing, but we will

wait until that happens.

Now, what I am going to do is

I am going to have you step closer

towards me.

Now, if you will notice, can you take

one step back?

Sorry.

So what I want to make sure that

people are understanding, Michael one step back, perfect.

My clients are so perfectly, beautifully exposed, but

pushing the light is actually a cool thing

that is going to make the photo interesting.

Take one step forward.

Now all we have basically done is illuminated

Micah's head, which I think is cool.

Now the reason I can do this is

that I have a natural reflector in front

of me that is going to be pushing

light back onto his face that is going

to create a dynamic photo.

Tiffany take one step in.

Now I want you guys turning in towards

each other.

Put your hands around your waist, so Tiff

you are going to bring your hands.

Now I want you guys to use this

center line on the floor as your center.

So Micah take your feet behind the line,

rad, great.

So that I know, now I know that

my photo will be perfectly symmetrical if they

are standing center.

So Tiffany can I have your hands on

the inside, and then here we go, yes,

nice, less back there.

Bring your bodies in nice and close, beautiful.

This is ultimately, now Micah I don't want

you hiding behind, I want you, I am

going to keep profiles as much as possible,

cool.

So I am going to shoot this with

a 35, and then what I am going

to do is I am going to shoot

it with the 85.

We have some runners and we are just

going to let them pass and it is

not going to be a big deal.

But because my subjects, go ahead guys, go

ahead, thanks.

Because my subjects are not looking at the

camera, I just need to get their profiles

in focus.

I can do that by shooting a 1

.4, and I am really pushing my lenses

here, not because this would be exactly what

I would do on a wedding day, I

may or may not, but I want to

show that I can shoot with wide open

apertures at the harshest time of day and

still produce photos that I like and that

my clients are comfortable with.

My clients mostly are still in shades, so

I am going to keep the ISO at

200.

I am just going to, you guys can

just pause for one second, take a nice

deep natural breath, I am going to get

my settings, I am going to be shooting,

you guys can't do the cute stuff quite

yet.

Great, my settings are F1.4, 1250 the

second, 200 ISO.

Now here is the thing, Tiff can you

open your legs a tiny bit, good.

Now I am having Tiff from her heels

simply come down a tiny bit because I

want Micah to be a slightly bit taller

than her just for relational proximity to where

my clients are.

I want this to look and feel real.

Bring your foreheads in nice and close to

touch.

Foreheads touching, foreheads touching, I know it feels

awkward, good, good.

Now I want you to peel away from

each other.

Now I have the couples dead center, I

am going to stand in this slightly same

position, I am just going to change my

focal point so that my clients become in

the furthest left corner.

I am going to crop out the tip

of the, the rounded tip of the bridge

and just kind of get a nice long

line between, right after them, right behind them,

excuse me.

Tiff look down at the, at the center

of the floor, that line that I pointed

out, look down this way, forgive me love,

beautiful.

Sometimes my instructions aren't that great Tiffany, I

am not going to lie, good.

And then Micah kind of come in, give

her a light kiss, good.

Now what I want you to do, I

love this exactly how everything is, but Micah

take one step towards me, good.

Now all we're doing is your face is

going to, no, no, no, you stay, you're,

you're good, good, good, good.

And then all I'm going to do is

this here a little, and then Micah when

you come in now you're not going to

be, your nose is not going to be

tucked behind her hair, cool.

So Tiff take a nice deep breath, yes,

and relax that left shoulder, and Micah you

come in and you just give your beautiful

wife a kiss, beautiful, good.

And so I heard a runner behind me,

and so I had to make sure that

I fired off a shot, but what I'm

also noticing is that I'm picking up just

naturally some haze beneath my subjects.

I'm going to do this one more time

to be extra conscious of what's going on

within my frame as I'm shooting it in

three, in two, oh you guys jumped the

gun, okay I see how you guys are,

good, nice.

And then Micah come out a little bit

on this side of her hair, peel away,

nice, coming in, come in, come in, nice.

Tiff, eyes down here, eyes down here at

my hand, nice, chin, relax that shoulder, chin

down, nice, and then eyes here, and then

Micah come in and give her a light

kiss on the cheek, good, good.

Can I get the 85?

We're going into the last kind of set

of poses, I want to make sure that

I go through a list in my mind.

I'm shooting in really harsh light, and in

another section we're going to talk about how

to create natural posing, editorial posing, and fun

posing, we're going to talk about how to

do that specifically, but I want to make

sure that I'm applying each of those in

any sort of lighting situation.

So you're going to see a pattern the

more that you watch how I do it,

that the pattern will be the same, but

I'm going to make small lighting compensations.

So in this particular situation, Tiff turn your

shoulders towards me, Micah can I have you

stand behind Tiffany, we're going to lift up

the back of her dress, nice, and you're

Can I have the bouquet real quick, and

then Tiffany can I have you open your

legs a tiny bit, that'll just kind of

bring your body down a tiny bit, awesome.

And then actually Micah get you on this

side just so that we're not in competition

with her bangs, cool,

beautiful.

So what kind of shoes are you wearing?

Heels.

Can I see the heels?

Yeah.

Oh they're easy to take off, do you

mind standing barefoot?

Yes.

Oh great, okay, yes I am doing you

a favor.

So I am actually taking off my bride's

heels, I would absolutely positively ask to do

this on a wedding day, anything that would

create a shot that is going to be

more of what I want.

Now what I just did was I lowered,

I shortened the bride to such a degree

that now I feel like Micah's going to

be in a stronger, more masculine position, but

he's not going to be the focus.

This is going to be a slight twist

on a traditional bridal portrait, so Tiff can

you bring your bouquet right about here, Micah

scoot over a tiny bit behind her, now

I want you to wrap your arms around

her, yeah, and then I am going to

be focused on, Tiff I am going to

shoot this at a 1.2, I am

going to start at, let's see, I am

just going to select real quick, ooh this

is real pretty, good, so your hands are

out like this, Micah, pause, Micah can I

have your left arm over her left arm,

yeah, and then just relax the fingers right

now they're spread, yeah, and then just kind

of relax them, just give me a nice

good, boom, good, and for these I am

going to be focusing, is there bugs on

you, sorry, okay, good, so you're going to

be looking at Tiff, Tiff chin towards me,

beautiful, and then Micah you're going to come

in and squeeze in nice and close, just

get in nice and cuddle, like a nice,

good, now what happened, Tiffany's you came down

in, I want you to still be strong,

if you're going to come, if you're going

to fall to any side, left to right,

not back or front, we're going to let

somebody pass, I'm going to talk you through

it, that, I mean the photo itself is

beautiful, I just want to make sure that

you feel like really good, side to side,

one last biker and then we're going to

be good to go, nice, so bring it

on in, nice and close, Micah, nice and

close, squeezer, squeezer, squeezer, girl, nice, I'm going

to shoot this one tiny bit other way,

nice, oh Micah you jumped the gun, good,

that's good, I'll take it, nice, oh that

is so cute, peel away from each other,

peel away just one last time, nice and

then come back in, come back in, oh

Tiff, I like how you fell, how you

fell, yes that, and then Micah, look at

Tiff and squeeze her in, squeeze her in,

squeeze her in, chin down, chin down, chin

down, good, beautiful, let's pause here for a

second, now what I want you to do

is, can I get the 50 JD and

this is going to go into the last,

I'm still going to, if my bride's okay

being barefoot, which in this particular situation, her

swimming endorsement, absolute, I said swimming, whatever and

your amazing endorsement totally gave it, gave me

the permission to ask for this, I'm going

to shoot this at a 2.5, separate

a tiny bit, good, now if at all

possible, try to stay within this space, try

not to come too far out or too

far back, if at all possible, now take

a couple steps apart from each other, apart

from each other, apart from each other, beautiful,

Tiff pick up the dress with one hand,

let me make sure that I'm where I

want to be, good, so the light's where

I want to be, now Tiff, I could

take one step this way, nice, a little

bit in, a little bit, perfect, good, now

I'm going to put Tiffany's body in front

of the girls who are walking behind her

and Tiff, can you just show me a

little bit of your dance moves, whatever you

did there at the Disney vacation or your

Disney audition, I mean just don't listen to

me, good, how about give me a little

twist all the way around, good, good, how

about, okay, so that's cutesy Disney moves, so

how would you like break it down in

a club, yes, I know, those dance moves

are killer, let me just say, good, good,

good, good, good, now Micah, can you show

me a few dance moves, oh my god,

so Tiff, you absolutely look like the best

dancer, good, bring it in nice and close

to each other, nice and close to each

other, eyes here, eyes here, beautiful, hang on

one second, I'm gonna let some walkers pass

behind you, beautiful, we're gonna come in for

a nice portrait, this is an absolute portrait,

now one thing that I'm going to focus

on is that Tiffany's hair split, this would

be a Photoshop fix for me later that

I want to avoid in advance, I'm going

to slightly pick up her hair, I'm going

to place it adjacent to her face and

just save time later on in post, this

will be the last photo, this would kind

of be for mom, grandma, I'm going to

shoot this at a 3.2, ISO 200,

I'm going to use my ghetto fabulous lens

hood, my light's exactly where I want it,

beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, so that I have that,

one last frame, can you guys turn towards

each other, nice, and can I have your

hands here, on both sides of his lapel,

beautiful, and so, um, yeah, atta girl, good,

and then, um, you guys are going to,

hang on, hang on, hang on, let me

figure out what I want to do, cool,

so now what I'm going to do is

I'm going to shoot at a 1.2

because I can, I'm going to get a

single shot of just the bride looking at

the groom, so you can look at Micah,

and this beautiful light, so Micah's just slightly

illuminated, she is just looking fierce, can you

look over at the videographer Tiff, oh Micah

was going to kiss you, dang it, I

stole his kiss, good, I'm just going to

flip this because the light is still so

great, and we're going to, yep, now bring

it on, your face is in a little

bit closer, good, now Micah look towards, I'm

going to steal his kiss again, dang it,

good, look towards the videographer, um, there you

guys go, beautiful, good, now I'm shooting at

a 1.2, 1250, the second 200 ISO,

now Tiff, I want your hands underneath his

chin, lightly, you're going to guide him in

forehead to forehead, but not yet, not yet,

so right now, I want princess fingers, we

have this, I want, you know, you know,

see I can say princess fingers, so you

know exactly what I'm talking about, I'm going

to shoot at a 1.2, so I

need to make sure that everything is moving

nice and slow, I need to make sure

that the sun is not coming in on

my lens, or to actually compromise the focal

point, I'm going to shoot this at a

1600th of a second, 1.2, 200 ISO,

hands underneath his chin, slightly bring him in

forehead to forehead, great, hang on one second,

peel away from each other, I'm doing it

again, because I don't think I locked in

the focus the way I needed to, so

come in towards each other, good, now what

I want you guys to do is flip

it, flip exactly what you're doing, because Tiffany's

bang was in the way, and I know

that I'm being particular, but I really want

this shot, and so if I'm going to

fight for a shot, I'm going to make

it work, and part of the reason why

I think this would even work even better

is because now I can work in her

ring on their wedding day, we're going to

have her guided in his chin, and we're

not going to be competing with the bang,

so this is the last couple frames, bring

your hands underneath his chin, good, relax the

hands down, relax the hands down, relax hands

in, and then Micah squeeze her in, hang

out, hang out, hang out, attagirl, good, peel

away from each other, peel away from each

other, good, now Tiffany, I'm going to have

you look at me, not yet, not yet,

come in towards each other, come in towards

each other, Tiff look at me, Tiff look

at me, thank you, perfect, we're good, that's

fantastic, thank you, thank you, thank you so

much, and closing this final section of shooting

in the worst light ever, three things I

want you to focus on, use natural reflectors,

natural reflectors that reflect colors like terracotta, beige,

white, those will always make your photos look

complementary, stay away from natural reflectors that are

either blue, or green, or even magenta in

color, as they will change the overall feeling

of the photo, you want, especially when you're

shooting in dappled light, second point, dappled light

to have behind them, and still find a

way to use a natural reflector in front

of them, when you compromise a bit of

the sky, yes possibly, but you still get,

you get photos and light that you really

like, and lastly, when shooting in open shade,

see if you can find leveraging of natural

reflectors, but not putting your subjects too far

in, and close to the open shade, which

would provide muddled light, and not that dynamic

kind of light that we got towards the

end, so using a natural reflector both in

front of them, and behind them, will always

yield better photographs, thank you guys so much,

and I look forward to coming back tomorrow.

can you believe it yeah I swear I'm

fine, that I'm all right, but I'm barely

breathing thought I could find my way back

home, but I get lost alone I

swear I can breathe, and when I'm with

you, I know who I am, and who

I want to be most

times I'm pretty normal, oh let's be clear

and honest here, do away with looking for

more I can fake it on my own,

so what we want to end this particular

section on is your homework, the homework assignment

for you on this particular lesson is to

arrive early, I want you to arrive early

to your next shoot, now your next shoot

doesn't necessarily have to be a shoot in

bright light, what I want you to start

doing is start training your eyes to see,

and I just don't want to train your

eye to see the natural reflector, I actually

want you to count the natural reflectors, because

once you count your natural reflectors, you're going

to start setting the pattern of the shoot

in which it should fall, now I want

you to use the natural reflectors at the

shoot, it doesn't have to be the entire

shoot, but I want you to start finding

ways to use them, so that you see

them, and you become a lot more comfortable

using them when you're going on your shoot,

because I want you to be empowered to

take a risk, because so often what we

do is we go to the safe part,

and the safe part might be open shade,

but it might not be the most dynamic

part, right, if given the opportunity to take

a nice photo or a dynamic photo, I

hope that you choose the dynamic, because you

are confident in the way that you can

compensate light without bringing any other gear with

you, thank you guys so much, and I

look forward to seeing how you guys implement

finding and using natural reflectors, perfect, so on

that note, are there any questions in regards

to shooting in the worst possible light, awesome,

we'll get a mic here, and then we'll

get a mic to Tara, so I know

that you're often positioning the sun to the

back of the clients, and I'm wondering what

happens if there's like some amazing element that

they want photographed, and it's like in the

worst direction possible, so like the altar or

something like that, great question, great question, so

what I want to do is, I want

to prep my clients for what they are

about to expect, and the prep goes with

the sun behind them, because I don't want

to prep them when they're like this, already

unhappy with what that situation is, if you

guys hear there's a pattern, the pattern has

been creating an experience for the client, even

if that means prepping them with their backs

to the sun, what I'm going to do

is, I'm going to say, we'll just role

play for the sake of going faster and

more efficient, like okay, so it is really

bright, but I know that you want the

altar, so now that we've cleared everything out

of the way, you have to understand that

it's going to be bright, and it's going

to be a natural inclination to squint, so

I want you to be very conscious of

that, I'm only going to shoot two frames

of you actually looking at me, and the

rest of the frames will you guys be

looking at each other, that way it won't

hurt your eyes, but we'll still be able

to illuminate the sides of your faces, now

JD will be off to the side, he'll

have a bottle of water, so if you

can rally with me for two minutes, and

not act like you were just melting in

Hades right now, we're gonna have a good

time, and they say okay, so now that

we go, and then I set them up,

and I say you guys, it's really bright,

now specifically brides and grooms with blue or

green eyes, there's a higher sensitivity than brides

and grooms with black or brown eyes, so

in light of that, I have them look

down, or I say you guys, if you're

comfortable, can you just close your eyes, and

when I count to three, I want you

to look up at my camera confidently, and

smile, but not too big, I just want

you to look like you're very comfortable, so

when they're looking down, they're not fighting for

me to be like one, two, it's looking

down, closing their eyes, can you guys look

up at me, great, now I'm going to

turn you guys towards each other, I'm not

changing anything, my settings aren't changing, the environments

aren't changing, they turn towards each other, but

now that only the sides of their face

are lit, and then they can look and

enjoy each other, and then we can fire

a frame that I think will probably go

farther than the traditional, them like looking with

the sun straight at them, awesome, thank you.

So when it comes to a ceremony, you

do not have the option to move people,

so do you try and prepare your clients

before, and like maybe get some, you know,

give them some tips on, hey, if you

just move the altar back a little bit,

you're going to be in some shade.

Well most my clients, you know, they're not,

I actually on the day of, I don't

want to talk to my client about like,

can we just change the altar, like I'm

sure you want to think about this right

now, we can't, so I will walk the

property, or walk the vicinity, now sometimes when

there's an altar, you have traditionally like an

altar, a chuppah, some sort of anything, they'll

have the four corner posts, now if the

posts are large enough, and they cast a

large enough shadow for my subjects to be

placed within the shadow, I might talk to

the officiant, and talked to him before, like

can you come talk to me, can we

come like walk around the altar, the chuppah,

and I said, if you stand here, can

you guide them to stand right over here,

and most of the time they're just like,

yeah, sure, no problem, and I said, it's

just so hot and bright, what I'm really

saying is like, I don't want a meter

for them when they're like boiling, you know,

and they're so bright, that's, that is maybe

as much as I would ask, but then

I just have to understand like, we shot

a wedding in Palm Springs, and it was

beautiful, now traditionally, Palm Springs in March is

around 78 degrees, and this weekend it just

happened to be a toasty 104, they were

not expecting that, there was not a single

umbrella, there was not a single tree, this

is Palm Springs, and everybody just sat there,

drenched, so drenched, that never in the entirety

of my 10 years have I ever like

crept behind, and offered the groom a bottle

of water, because he just was literally just

dripping, so no, I do not coach my

clients, because this is their decision, and I

don't want to stress them out, I must

then learn how to deal with what that

looks like, it required me to be a

lot more patient with my shooting, because the

groom was looking right at the bride like

this the whole time, the whole time, and

I'm like, you gotta ease it up, you

gotta ease it up, and so I just

waited, and I'm short, and he's very tall,

I stood probably for like eight minutes on

my tippy toes, like just waiting, just waiting

for that brief moment of him to relax,

either by her personal vows, like I love

you, we met in college, and he'll look

down, and he'll smile, or he'll look up

to her parents, and then that's when I

was able to get the shot that I

wanted, but no, I don't coach them, awesome,

we're gonna pass the mic here, thank you,

hi, so there's a lot of venues here

in Seattle that feature Mount Rainier in the

back, so if you blow out the sky,

you're losing the mountain in the back, and

there's also quite a few venues that are

dark on the inside, but then have these

huge bright windows where like the light is

coming in, so if you're shooting indoors that's

facing outdoors, do you have any suggestions on

those two situations?

In those situations, I would use my off

-camera flash, okay, yeah, I mean, it really

just boils, I mean, and if it's a

shot that she absolutely positively wants, then yes,

I would have to illuminate it, you know,

with flash, but if I was going into

that situation, like let's just say hypothetically that

there is like a reception venue, and it's

like rooftop, but it's all glass windows, and

then Mount Rainier is in the background, I

would, if I knew that that's what I

was going into, I would have a conversation

six weeks in advance to the reception and

say, is that what you want?

Because if that's what you want documented as

part of the photos, then you have to

understand it's not really going to reflect the

style that I naturally shoot, and if she

says, yes, the mountain is so important, then

I will say, okay, I will have to

use flash, so please know that you will

see pops of that throughout the evening, and

if she says, okay, then I'm absolved of

that, and this conversation happens via email, so

that when she looks back and be like,

but I don't have any of those natural

-looking photos, I'll be like, because you had

specifically requested.

Okay, thank you.

Awesome.

Are there any other questions?

Awesome.

Not awesome that there's not more questions.

Awesome that we just went through all of

that.

I hope that through this process, what you

now see when shooting in natural light and

not, say, during a reception is that you

know how to find and see natural reflectors.

As we close, I want you to keep

in mind that there is opportunities that when

you are shooting in a really bright situation,

and the groom is facing this way, and

the bride, and maybe the son is right

here, I've found that dresses are the best

source of natural reflectors, because he can be

looking down, and her dress is popping light

back in his face.

Those little tiny tricks are just time savers,

and you guys are going to start seeing

that, so on that note, I wish you

guys the best, and I can't wait to

see how you guys definitely challenge and change

your natural light photography.